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Pinger

22 May 2013

The advent of censure on the pages of Al Jazeera is interesting insofar that the censured author is a well known Israel-hater. Why would an essentially anti-Israeli Arab media outlet remove an article chiefly dedicated to bashing of Israel is a good question.

The Contentious Centrist has something to say about it, it is an interesting version of events I haven't encountered anywhere else (and kudos to TCC):

It is my opinion that the editors of Al-Jazeera, in publishing this article, were not fully aware that its author premised his case on the fact that the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were industrially exterminated by Nazi Germany (with the willing assistance of other European and non-European leaders) was indeed an event whose historicity could not be denied or doubted. This sort of claim flies in the face of Arab ethos...Al-Jazeera is nothing if not extremely sensitive to the populist mood of the Arab street. Once the editors realized Massad's article bases its theories on the fact that the Holocaust unquestionably did take place, and that it affirmed that 6 millions of Jews were exterminated by the Nazis, they had no other choice but to remove it from its public platforms. To not do so would open the door to the possibility that someone might well wonder whatever happened to the standard Arab denial that the Holocaust ever took place, or if it did, that only 50-60 Jews were killed?

Al-Jazeera's decision to yank the article was not philo-Semitic, they probably feared that it would cause problems with their launch in the west. AJ airs holocaust deniers like Yusuf Al-Qaradawi and publishes cartoons that would be right at home in Tsarist pamphlets. They've published Massad's Jew hatred before, they were happy to publish a vile racist article he wrote about Jewish refugees.

While both version have some merit, I tend to prefer the TCC's one, it fits better with what I feel is the mood of the Arab street.

I beseech you, true version of events notwithstanding, to read both articles that describe the mental contortion of three Israel-haters: Greenwald, AbuKhalil and AbuNimah, who have thrown their combined puny weight in defense of the above mentioned. There are some hilarious moments, no matter how sad is the picture of the mouth-foaming haters.